Jai Surya Movie Reviews

In these cricket-rich times, the name Jayasurya evokes only images of an all-guns blazing, going-for-the-jugular batsmen. Ironically, the film under the same name is anything but blazing. To be sure, it goes for the jugular, but ends up shooting itself in the foot.

Jayasurya is actually two persons without the benefit of punctuation. Surya (Arjun) is a confidence trickster, and like all film heroes, has a heart of gold. His companion in his larks is Baby (Laila). They are street smart and come out on top from any situation.

Elsewhere, there is Jai (another Arjun) who is a district collector. His runs foul of the local goons (led by Kota Sreenivasa Rao). So he is kidnapped by them. What next? The Collector's wife (Chaya Singh) has the brainwave to bring the look-alike and play him the Collector.

What ensues is not difficult to guess. For that matter, the entire plot is not difficult to guess. From Enga Veetu Pillai to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the makers seem to have taken pains to take at least one scene from every film of this genre. And what we are left with is a painful pastiche. The comedy track, involving Vadivelu, is crass. The songs are loud, the dance movements labored.

Arjun's role is a caricature. Laila and Chaya Singh's much worse. There is nothing in the film that is worth recommending --- excluding the popcorn you had in the interval, that is.

Jayasurya is such a film that it may even force the cricketer Jayasurya to move the courts for defamation.